


Rain Falls, Night Falls

by love_killed_the_superstar



Series: This World [1]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Episode: s03e21 Same As It Never Was, Gen, SAINW, prelude to sainw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 22:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3586098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The majority of the resistance is still weak, still being trained by Leonardo and April, so it is Casey and Mikey who are running blind through the storm, rain beating against their faces, drumming on Mikey's plastron and weighing down Casey's clothes. It is violent and loud, it rips away the sound of their shouts, the howling wind carrying the sound away as the rain drowns it. They are drowned turtle and man, screaming the same name over and over.</p>
<p>(In which Michelangelo refuses to accept that Donatello is lost and may never be found.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rain Falls, Night Falls

**Author's Note:**

> It's the SAINW anniversary today and I didn't even know until I saw on tumblr!! So here is my contribution - the first fic of many in my own sainw-verse. Since we have such little canon to go on in the 30 years leading up to sainw I'm filling in the gaps myself, in a series of short stories demonstrating the breaking up of the Hamato family and their allies.

It's dark again.

The majority of the resistance is still weak, still being trained by Leonardo and April, so it is Casey and Mikey who are running blind through the storm, rain beating against their faces, drumming on Mikey's plastron and weighing down Casey's clothes. It is violent and loud, it rips away the sound of their shouts, the howling wind carrying the sound away as the rain drowns it. They are drowned turtle and man, screaming the same name over and over.

“Donatello!!”

“Donnie!”

“Don, where are you?!”

Casey doesn't expect a reply these days, but Mikey is adamant that they continue these patrols, even in this kind of weather; it is pitch black and pouring it down, icy cold November rain pounding down on their backs. The hollow thunking sound it makes as each drop hits Mikey's shell reminds Casey of a CD he sometimes used to fall asleep to as a child. The thought is stupid, and he doesn't mention it to Mikey. The youngest turtle may have cracked jokes once upon a time, but when it comes to these search parties if anyone so much as smiles Mikey will yell at them. Or worse, he gets his hopes up (“Did you spot him?! Did you spot Donnie?!”).

Casey can't put this poor guy through that.

Briefly he pictures April sparring with one of the more skilled rebels, like Angel or Theo; ever so often he imagines her staring at the door, wondering if he'll come back through it again, carrying a drenched Mikey over his shoulder, or whether he'll burst through bleeding and shot, or whether he won't come back at all. She tends to worry like that, and the thought of her worries becoming a reality makes his whole body clench.

“We're in over our heads here,” he calls over the rain. “Mikey, we should retreat.”

Michelangelo may have ninja vision but Casey Jones certainly doesn't; to him it is an endless stretch of darkness, the dim outline of trees the only indicator of where he is going. If he squints he can usually make out Mikey's bright ninja mask, but when it is soaked through and stuck to his face it's darker and therefore more difficult to spot in this lighting. His flashlight stopped working an hour ago and his phone is dead, so it's even harder than usual to navigate through the trees, the added rain a factor that doesn't help in the slightest.

“We're not going anywhere!” He can't see where Mikey is but Casey is certain Mikey can see him, holding onto a tree, hands covered in the slime from the wet tree bark. Any moment Mikey will start to yell, and that's when Casey will know he is ready to leave. If Donnie is still lurking around Central Park (and Casey severely doubts it) he certainly wouldn't be leaving any sort of makeshift shelter to play Ninja Tag in the trees, so Mikey's search is going to be as fruitless as ever. And deep down, Casey is sure Mikey knows that too.

“Mikey, it's pouring it down. Donnie ain't out here. Not tonight, anyway.” He tries to be calm but he has to shout just so that the orange-clad turtle can hear him. He has enough of a ninja sixth-sense to know Mikey is glaring at him right now.

“We're not leaving with nothing, Casey!!” The fierceness in his voice used to scare Casey a little bit, but it's what Mikey has become, and that's that. If there is any way to revert him back to the joking kid he used to know Casey would do it in a heartbeat. “We can't leave with nothing!!”

“This search has been going for months now!” Casey points out, shivering. His clothes are sticking to his skin, weighed down with water, and he can tell Mikey isn't doing much better. “Mikey, I don't think we're gonna find him here. If he was here, we'd have found him by now.”

“YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!!” Casey is shoved backwards against the tree, wincing as his head hits the bark, and Mikey is in his face, glaring. Behind the anger there is fear, anxiety. The gnawing worry that maybe Casey is right, and Donnie truly is gone, and they'll _never_ find him. “You don't... you don't know that, Casey...”

As he pushes away he slips in a small crater of mud and falls, sliding across dirt and gravel, letting out a cry. Casey crouches down at his side.

“You okay?” Of course he isn't, and even Casey Jones is smart enough to know that. Mikey is shuddering, shaking all over, whether it being from cold or otherwise, there's no way of telling. Those could be tears welling up in his eyes, spilling down his face, but it could be rain. Maybe Casey's eyes are playing tricks on him, showing a side of Mikey that Casey fears could have hardened, broken, detached itself from the last recognisable facet of his personality. It's too dark to tell for sure.

“He'll be here,” Mikey chokes out, voice muffled by a combination of the rain and blood rushing in Casey's ears. “Even if it's a week from now, or a year from now, he'll be here. We'll find him. We have to. We have to!”

His hope is far from running dry. The desperation in his voice tells Casey all he needs to know.

 

**Author's Note:**

> One of the saddest things about sainw in my opinion was how jaded Mikey became. Deep down we could still tell it was him, but he was so full of rage and hurt that it was sad to watch him this way. The war and disappearance of his brother truly ruined his life, and I want to carry on exploring how the characters were changed as a consequence.


End file.
